"Sarah Palin: Take 2" Comic Review

Written by Dan RafterIllustrated by Nathan Carson2010, 36 pages, $3.99

Comic released in December of 2010

Review:

One of Bluewater Productions claims to fame is their biography books. They made the headlines a couple years back after releasing comics depicting the lives of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin. This has continued to this day with comics about current big name celebrities like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Bluewater returns to the political well with the sequel to what could be the most terrifying public servants of them all: Sarah Palin. How can a biography book have a sequel, you may ask? Well, this isn't really a sequel in terms of a biography. It's more a bitter writer's take on the current events regarding Sarah Palin.

Dan Rafter is a writer. He tells you that right away in this book. He's written other things for Bluewater, but he doesn't seem all that happy about it. He also watches the news and has opinions about Sarah Palin, most of them negative. I was surprised at how biased this issue was. I'll admit that the only other bio comic I've read from Bluewater was the recent Betty White issue, so I don't have much to compare this to. This is far from a bio book. It's more like one man running his mouth about what he thinks of the current political landscape and how Sarah Palin fits or doesn't fit into it. I almost feel bad for die-hard Palin fans that pick this book up thinking they're going to read about the life of Palin and how she's making waves in DC. Imagine their surprise when they open this up.

The art by Nathan Carson leaves much to be desired. In fact, it's downright horrible. It looks like he spent about 20 minutes drawing the whole book. He seems to have a tough time drawing people from the side as anyone with their head even slightly turned is drawn at such odd angles. This isn't an artistic decision as far as I can see. It just reeks of a quick paycheck.

That's really what this entire book is. It's clear that no one really cares about it. The writing is lazy and poorly edited. At one point they even spell Palin's name wrong. The art is sloppy and certainly not suitable for a book being released by a publisher like Bluewater. This is a cash grab, pure and simple. It's also really scary but for all the wrong reasons. I went into this comic with the intention of reviewing it because, let's face it, Sarah Palin is scary. She's also become somewhat of a cult figure of late. Yet, the fact that a book like this exists frightens me more than the possibility that Palin could run for President in 2012.

James has a 2nd grade reading level and, as a result, only reads books with pictures. Horror is his 5th favorite genre right after romantic comedy and just before silent films. No one knows why he's here, but he won't leave.